Orrin Hatch: “I thank the Chair. Now, there is nothing more important we can do than improve the general welfare of all the American…”

“I thank the Chair. Now, there is nothing more important we can do than improve the general welfare of all the American families and reduce the national debt that is eating away like a swarm of termites on a log. The way to do that is to pass the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. To me, unless we do this, we are going to be in real trouble in this country. This past week, the House of Representatives answered the question: If you have to balance your checkbook every month, should not the Federal Government have to balance its books every year? Their answer was ``yes,'' 300 to 132. They answered the question: Has Washington spent your tax dollars wisely? And their answer was ``no''-- 228 Republicans and 72 courageous Democrats bit the bullet and did the right thing. What a victory for all of us. Right now, our debt is a staggering $4.8 trillion. That means that each and every one of us in this country, including every child, owes a whopping $18,500, and it keeps going up every day. We can no longer saddle our children with decade after decade of unbalanced budgets. We have not balanced this budget in 26 years, and it appears to me that we have not balanced it but a few times in the last 60 years. Current interest on the national debt is $300 billion a year and rising. Believe it or not, that is more than the total revenues that came to the Federal Government back in 1975.…”